We are so excited to announce the mascot that will represent Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Elementary starting with the 2021-2022 School Year! 

 

The Givens Community has selected our new mascot and it is…… Ha, you thought we were going to share it. Join us on January 26th for the big reveal (information below).

 

Our students, led by our student committee, worked together to select a mascot that will represent our school starting in the 2021-2022 school year. We started with about 20 nominations and narrowed it down to 6 choices on the ballot. We spent a lot of time learning about various animals and how they interact with other animals and their habitats. This helped us select the options that would represent our school well. 

 

We shared the ballot and video with those students that would be voting and students campaigned for the one they wanted to win. Check out some of the cool posters they made. 

 

We held or election and there were 2 choices that rose to the top. We can’t wait to share them with you on January 26th at 5:30 pm. Join us on Zoom!  We will post the reveal video after our reveal. See you soon!

 

Our Student Committee also had the opportunity to work with Mr. Jake Simon, a graphic designer, and a Givens parent. He told us all about how he works to tell stories and explain ideas with pictures, shapes,  and colors and showed us how we do the same. He told us about all sorts of cool jobs artists use their skills in. Finally, he shared with us some important tips to remember when selecting our mascot and logo designs and utilized our feedback to start creating our new logo for our school. We enjoyed Mr.Simon and appreciated his words, “No one else is exactly like you, so anything you create is special and important.” 

Mr. Simon and Ms. Cook, our Givens Art Teacher, will be collaborating with us to design our mascot and logo graphics. There will be a sneak peek on January 26th. 

Zoom Information:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/93671722118?pwd=MTZRL3pnTEtGTjUzeFl5VElRVUJvZz09

Meeting ID: 936 7172 2118

Passcode: 4Py0aB

Hello Givens Community! Everyone has been pitching in to prepare for our transition.  Our student committee has been hard at work, and we almost have our new mascot selected. We wanted to share our journey with you. 

Five students, nominated by their teachers,  were asked to represent the voices of their peers in electing the new mascot for our school. During our first meeting, we learned all about the importance of a mascot and how they work to represent the business or school they stand for. We then planned out the lesson that all students would receive before we opened for nominations. They wanted to include two important pieces of information:

1. An opportunity for their peers to learn about the role of a mascot in representing the business or school they are chosen for. 
2. An Opportunity for students to understand the Guiding Principles we have been using in our work. 

 

Each classroom teacher used the slides created by our committee to teach the mini-lesson to their students. There were opportunities for virtual students and future students to participate in this process. After that, we started collecting nominations and received about 20 different entries. Students had to submit the mascot choice and evidence that connected to our Guiding Principles. We saw some very creative entries. 

 

Our committee met, and narrowed down the choices using criteria we came up with together:

1. The mascot can not be the same as another school within our district.
2. It must be a mascot that does not show disrespect to any person or group of people. 
3. The evidence must connect with our Guiding Principles
4. The animal must be viewed in a positive light.

We narrowed our ballot down to the six choices below. All Current and Future students will get the opportunity to vote (Future students will receive an emailed ballot). Voting will open on December 18th and close on January 7th. Students may choose to use the upcoming week to campaign for the mascot choice they would like to win. 

***The images are clipart and not an official picture of our mascot.

Following the election, we will share the winning mascot on January 12th. Our student committee will then work with a logo designer to help create our new logo. We are excited about this work and meeting our goal of including our peers and staff in our process. 

 

Next fall, as you know, Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Elementary School will transition from a lottery-based school to a neighborhood school for the 2021-2022 school year.

We are reaching out to you today to let you know about a special opportunity to learn more by attending a Zoom meeting for families. You’ll be able to meet Ms. Beecham and members of the staff, take a virtual tour, and participate in a question and answer session.

We’re looking forward to Fall 2021 and the new Dr. Henry Givens Jr. School. We hope you’ll join us on Zoom as we prepare to move forward.

To sign up and submit questions, follow this link: https://forms.gle/qzDmQKjpnMemjU7Z6

We will email you the Zoom link to join. 

We look forward to seeing you soon!

What an exciting week for our Re-Imagining Work!

 On Monday, I met with class representatives to create the process we will use to gather student voices in selecting our new mascot, school colors, and logo. We started with a fun “recognize the mascot game” and then talked about what we would like for this process to be. Students wanted to make sure all students, whether virtual or in-person, had the opportunity to share their voice in the nomination process. They then wanted to ensure all stakeholders had a chance to participate in the voting process.  Our current reality pulled on our problem-solving skills; however, we are confident in our plan. 

 On Tuesday, our Re-Imagining Committee met, some virtual and some in person, to continue planning for our transition.  We worked on finalizing our Guiding Principles and using those to work through a protocol for solidifying what they would look like in our various Task Force Groups. We have divided our work into 5 Task Force Groups:

1. Building the Climate and Culture of our School
2. Building Design (Interior and Exterior)
3. Family and Community Partnerships
4. Authentic, Relevant, Personalized Learning Opportunities
5. Communications and Public Relations

Each group worked through a process that helped them visualize what our Guiding Principles would look like in action, our current reality, and what priority steps we will use to prepare for our 2021-2022 opening. 

 One of the groups talked about ways we will take to document our work and progress better. Please be on the lookout for:

1. Weekly video updates (First week in November) to allow you to learn more about our team at Givens. 
2. Opportunities to see the unique spaces we are planning for 2021.
3. Ways you can learn more about offering ideas and feedback. 

 You are probably wondering what our “Guiding Principles” are, but stay tuned to our blog. We will be sharing updates to help you learn more about the shared beliefs guiding our work. With our weekly videos, you will also get a better understanding of the work of each group. 

Please feel free to add comments or suggestions by clicking on the "Got Questions" button to the left. 

On this journey together, 

Malissa Beecham

Principal

Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Elementary 2021-2022

Givens Community Update:

While we are working through virtual learning, we have also been working towards our transition. As most of you know, Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Elementary School will transition from a lottery school to a neighborhood school for the 2021-2022 School Year. We have taken several steps towards our goal, and we want to keep you informed as we go. We will be using this platform to share information and gather feedback from our community. 

 

• I have immersed myself in the Webster Groves Community through various meetings with organizations, community leaders, and community members. I have truly enjoyed learning more about the community we will serve and appreciated hearing their hopes and wishes for our school. I also spent an afternoon doing the North Webster Walking Tour and learned about the rich history that continues to empower the vital work going on in our community. 

 

• I also spent time speaking to students, teachers, parents, and school and district staff members to learn more about the school and the work they have been doing here for the last several years. They also shared their hopes and dreams for our new school. One of the school’s most heard characteristics included the family-like feel and intentional ways students, staff, and parents contribute to the connectedness felt by all.

 

• Through a survey sent to all addresses within our new boundaries, we gathered feedback from families transferring to Givens. On September 15th, we held our first Re-imagining Givens Committee Meeting and used this data to begin our mission, vision, and values planning. This committee has representatives from each stakeholder group, and they work to communicate with and share information from the groups they are representing. 

 

This week we wanted to share some themes that grew from our conversations with stakeholders and our survey. As a committee, we know that our vision and mission’s creation and core values will grow out of our continued work together. We will use these powerful verbs, adjectives, and traits to guide our work. 

If you have any questions or would like to share feedback, please feel free to email me at beechamjudge.malissa@wgmail.org.

 

On this journey together,
Ms. Malissa Beecham
Principal
Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Elementary School